KCR to mount pressure on Centre to heal TS, AP bifurcation wounds

HYDERABAD: The Telangana government will make a strong demand before the Centre to persuade Andhra Pradesh to withdraw the court cases under the AP Reorganisation Act in order to facilitate the resolution of the two Telugu states’ long-pending bifurcation issues.

Official sources said Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao reviewed the pending bifurcation issues with senior officials ahead of the Union home ministry's scheduled meeting in Delhi on September 27 to discuss bifurcation issues. Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, finance special chief secretary K.Ramakrishna Rao and senior officials of the departments concerned will attend the meeting in New Delhi.

The CM reportedly said that the AP government had been blocking resolution of bifurcation issues by approaching courts. There could be no progress unless AP withdraws the cases. The CM is learnt to have said that there was no point in the Centre holding such meetings if it first failed to persuade AP to withdraw the cases.

Rao had claimed that the previous TD government in AP from 2014 to 2019 did not cooperate in resolving these issues, instead complicating them further by moving the courts despite the TS offering to hold talks several times.

According to sources, the CM recalled his two invitations to AP CM Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to visit Pragathi Bhavan for talks after the YSRCP government came to power in AP in 2019.  “By refusing to withdraw court cases, the YSRC government was taking the same stance as the previous TD government," Rao said.

The CM reportedly took stock of assets and liabilities, cash reserves of common institutions listed under Schedule IX and X of the Act, located in Hyderabad, in which AP was seeking a share.